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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Computational Linguistics

Background:

  • Sentence comprehension models explain how listeners interpret meaning, even with errors.
  • The noisy-channel framework suggests interpretation balances prior expectations and likelihood of errors.
  • Previous research indicated a link between exposure to implausible sentences and literal interpretation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how comprehenders interpret semantically implausible sentences.
  • To test the noisy-channel framework's prediction that higher priors for implausible sentences increase literal interpretation.
  • To control for confounds present in prior studies, such as adaptation effects and between-subject design differences.

Main Methods:

  • Manipulated the semantic prior by varying the proportion of implausible sentences presented to participants.
  • Controlled for potential confounds like experiment length and individual participant strategies.
  • Participants read sentences and answered comprehension questions to assess their interpretations.

Main Results:

  • Participants exposed to a higher proportion of implausible sentences were more likely to interpret them literally.
  • The findings align with the noisy-channel framework's predictions.
  • The study successfully controlled for adaptation effects and between-subject design limitations.

Conclusions:

  • Exposure to implausible sentences influences their literal interpretation, supporting the noisy-channel framework.
  • The findings provide robust evidence for the role of semantic priors in sentence comprehension.
  • This research refines our understanding of how cognitive biases and exposure shape language processing.